Breaking the chains, winning the games, and saving Western Civilization.

Tuesday, March 3, 2015

Winning, redefined

LR sends a very helpful email which helps demonstrate that the Gamma delusion is considerably worse than the average non-Gamma grasps:

Being somewhat Gamma myself, I recognized something in the course of reading your posts that may be of interest to you.Gammas think they are Alphas.

It sounds insane, but it's true. A man who knows his place and sticks to that place is usually left to his own devices. Pay tribute to those above, demand tribute from those below, and if a man should disagree with either his own or your relative position in the hierarchy, then conflict will ensue to determine who is correct. It's a simple enough formula and it occurs frequently, if not daily, during the course of a man's life. Men tend to be very diligent about ensuring the proper order of things, but once that order is established, there is an element of stability. The victor may be magnanimous to the defeated. In turn, the loser is expected to acclimate himself to his new position.

Gammas introduce instability to this hierarchy. They refuse to accept their station, nor do they propose to increase it through deeds and experience. Like women, they come to expect a certain station in life and feel wronged when it is not provided for them. A common Gamma thought would be "why should he be the leader and get all the glory for himself?"

How many individuals come to your blog saying they are this or that? Maybe they claim they are half Sigma and half Beta or some such. But this is usually a Gamma thing. Those with high SMV don't need the validation of blog comments to determine their position in life. They know it, even if they lack the words to describe it. Even many with low SMV come to understand this.

Nor is this a new phenomenon. In the course of following the advice you have relayed to us, I have read The Meditations. While extremely helpful, and I would be remiss if I did not thank you and the original poster for it, I craved more. So I read Xenophon's Anabasis, and I recommend this to other Gammas also. It is instructive in matters of hierarchy. In that, it was clear that some of the soldiers were Gammas, talking behind the backs of their betters, plotting to gain power in the manner of women. One complained about the weight of his shield, and so Xenophon took it upon himself to carry the man's shield, and yet that man was angry with Xenophon for having done so. Very Gamma. And if they had achieved power, the army would have been annihilated. Indeed, whenever they grew restless and did things on their own, those men came to ruin.

Gammas think they are Alphas, but Alphas [and Betas, and Deltas, and Sigmas - VD] know that to let a Gamma have power is to court disaster. Perhaps that knowledge wove its way into instinct over the centuries, such that the hostility is now innate. The species wishes to preserve itself and Gammas are in the way of that. They should be beaten down until they acknowledge that they are the lowest of the low, even beneath the Omegas, for at least the Omega has opted out of the regular course of human affairs. At least the Omega knows his station.

I now know, having read Anabasis, that I am unfit for leadership. This is critical knowledge for any Gamma who wishes to improve his lot. I have at last acclimated myself to my station in life. Once you know your place in the hierarchy, you may endeavor to change it, to rise as a man as you gain knowledge, experience and skill. But you have a solid basis for knowing yourself, and that is good. Gammas must be broken, their notion of Alphahood expunged, their character, such that they possess, destroyed utterly. The survival of our civilization, like that of the 10,000, depends on this.

I found this hard to credit. I mean, what planet does the Gamma have to be orbiting to understand that his lack of popularity and female companionship means that his socio-sexual status is low?

I asked LR and he attempted to explain:

Willful blindness comes to mind, but that doesn't get at the root of the thing. Underneath the surface, the Gamma thinks himself a king, so anything that is preventing him from ascending his throne must somehow be unjust. Since the Alpha, in the course of his normal affairs, constitutes an obstacle to the Gamma's advancement, the Alpha must somehow be cheating the Gamma. It never crosses a Gamma's mind that he is no king, no superior being, since this has already been established as fact. Nor does the Gamma consider how the Alpha obtained his status. Since Gammas are prone to cheating their fellows, it is easy for him to suspect his opponent of the same behavior. Doubtless, thinks the Gamma, the leadership position was earned through subterfuge and oppression since that is how he would obtain it. This is why, even in the midst of intentional debasement, Gammas still possess that self-righteous smugness. Contrary to all wisdom, he believes he just demonstrated his status as a superior Alpha. He has exposed your game and dealt you a terrible blow, or so he thinks.

That's interesting, especially in light of the one Gamma of whom we know who did become a leader position of sorts, Mr. Gamma Rabbit himself, John Scalzi. He literally built his SF career on subterfuge (2 million monthly pageviews!) and oppression (the mallet of loving correction).

The Graduating Gamma author had a few thoughts on this as well:

Not all Gammas, but some absolutely think they are Alphas of some type and will redefine Alpha to suit their needs. Since they are never wrong = Alpha.

The majority of Gammas aren't this delusional though simply due to the fact that they can't reconcile being an Alpha with their mysterious lack of female companionship. It's too much for even a Gamma to deny. There are limits to the delusion for most. The real crazies are the ones which retreat to insisting that all women are being conned by dude-bros etc., which means they are the True Alpha and would be if everyone played fair or some other such fiction.

This explains some of the more bizarre notions I've come across from various individuals since first introducing the socio-sexual hierarchy. And it also explains why some Gamma males have resisted even the most obvious and observable aspects of the hierarchy so bitterly and have literally attempted to redefine Gammatude as winning.

"Gamma Rabbit likes people as they are, fears no one no matter how they live their lives, and is comfortable with himself and his own personal values of kindness, tolerance and diversity. Sure, there are some who look down on him and his ways, but you know what? Gamma Rabbit knows that those people are kooky, silly, wacky racist sexist homophobic dipshits, and aside from looking forward to the day when they might pull their heads out and join the rest of the human race, lets them alone to do their own thing. Because Gamma Rabbit has other, better people and things to think about."

Fantastic! What a masterfully inventive reframe of the entire human socio-sexual hierarchy. All so one Gamma male can continue to convince himself that he's on top.

Gamma can also retreat into fantasy where he can be king. Reality continually bursting that bubble. Only thing to do is to avoid reality or at least any reality that challenges the bubble. The bubble must be maintained at potentially great cost. Horrible way to live.

I think atomized, technologically advanced society makes this worse by providing easier reality escapes for the gamma to be able to protect his personal bubble. Examples would be the kid stuck in his room playing games all the time, people like me immersing myself in the internet talking to myself with no challenge to my ideas/beliefs.

The cold turkey solution to gamma is to be forced into social situations with no escape, problem is its too easy to avoid it all. Its easier to avoid or run away from "trigger" situations.

I find myself fantasizing a lot, I'm aware this is no good for me but I've been doing it for so long it seems automatic. You mentioned in another post about gammas maybe being of above average intelligence. Maybe also higher degree of sensitivity and imagination. I remember as a child playing games and creating whole new worlds, just lost in the moment. I realize most kids do that but perhaps some kids do it more and find it harder to leave that behind. Arrested development.

Outside of his blinkered cult (and conservatives ) Scalzi's snark propaganda is pretty weak in the effectiveness department. I would say the Democratic party the political organization to which submits his approval to is in my estimation at least %50 full of blah, blah, blah dipshits in and of itself. But since we get tagged with the "common enemy" tag then we get to read blubber boy's smears directed at us.

@TrustNo, I think LR phrased it correctly. It's just that not every gamma is actively conscious that he wants to be an alpha, but it proves itself true in the subconscious by constantly, reliably, showing up.

@VDGammas think they are Alphas, but Alphas [and Betas, and Deltas, and Sigmas - VD] know that to let a Gamma have power is to court disaster. Perhaps that knowledge wove its way into instinct over the centuries, such that the hostility is now innate.I found myself initially disagreeing, but after typing my reply and thinking it through I connected the dots. I now wish to expand this statement a bit for others:

For the Delta, who relies on training far more than instinct, the ideal of the feminine man that has been pounded into their brains from popular works and public education has successfully subverted many instinctive mental alarms to Gammas in power. The instinct is still there, but it's been worked around and arm-barred into compliance, so there'll be many well-intentioned Deltas being duped and putting Gammas in positions of power. I ran into that recently myself...

I suspect that Betas might find themselves coopted sometimes but not nearly as much as Deltas, but Alphas who rely on instinct heavily just won't stand Gammas in power, probably ever.

Fair enough. Either way, gammas believe they deserve to be regarded as alphas and are bitter that others don't as well. They are very much like solipsistic women in this regard.

One of my biggest changes in overcoming gamma was accepting that I don't get to decide what other people like. I just had to accept reality and either conform or go away, but staying and demanding the universe accommodate me was so foolish that I can't hardly believe i was actually that complete of a dipshit. I was actually more self centered than the people I thought were self centered. As bad as I was treated back then, the realization that I deserved worse was a wake-up call.

I was actually more self centered than the people I thought were self centered.

Being someone who most people consider to be self-centered, this does not surprise me. I've often marveled at those who called me self-centered because I was focused on my objectives and my interests to the exclusion of theirs, while they quite clearly didn't understand that I had the same right to my objectives and interests that they had to their own.

I think we might be dealing with two strains of gammas here. I have come across those who definitely think they are alpha, even though everything about them screams gamma. Call them GammaA. Yes, they basically redefine everything to call themselves alpha. Dominant becomes douchebag; won't back down from conflict becomes bully; always right becomes alpha, etc.

The other gamma strain has a little more hope since they are slightly less self-deceived, but only slightly. Call them GammaB. They recognize that there is a hierarchy and that they are not on top. This is why they tend to be a little more bitter than GammaA. They engage in some of the same rhetoric--they might also call alphas douchebags, dudebros, or whatever. But they do so out of resentment and longing to be on top, not because they actually think they are. They know they aren't, and so all they do is scream, froth, and try (unsuccessfully) to tear the alphas down.

I knew a classic GammaA in college. He really wasn't that popular with women, but he wanted to be on top, so he walked around pretending that he was. His strategy was to hang around with a bunch of popular guys, pretty much all of whom were semi-tolerant betas or deltas. And he worked hard to wear the right clothes and act the part. Except that this guy utterly didn't know what the part was. He was still 30 pounds or more overweight. He was still zit-faced. He still put women on pedestals...literally since he got himself a spot on the cheerleading squad. He still wasn't dating the hot girls that he wanted to date. In the end, he married a fat woman whose appearance can only be described as piggish, and to this day he's probably still prancing around like the emperor with no clothes. GammaA

If I may... I believe there is an ontological aspect that the doubters are missing. The Grade A Gamma Male is far more delusional than you appear to be capable of realizing.

See... some people... and I know this from experience... can literally think up a lie... tell it to themselves in their head... and ***poof*** its true. Just like that. I've known one fellow could make up the most outrageous lies imaginable... and tell them to people who could not possibly believe them... and yet he believed them... and simply could not understand why those others did not.

The guy could pass lie dectectors. Not by gaming them.. but because they honestly believe their own bullshit.

Now... how can such a person reconcile his supposed Alphaness with a lack of companionship? He doesn't even have to.

When LR writes "alpha is assumed" he means it literally. They lie to themselves and tell themselves they are alpha and they believe it.

to put a point on the scope of this ontological insanity... I once had a man tell me a grand story about how he had gone on this glorious ski trip to this elite resort... two weeks he spent there... and he described the slopes and snow in detail... and he talked about all the women he'd laid there... and how amazing it all was.

And yet... this man was unemployed and had lived was living with his parents. I had interacted with him almost every day that whole winter. he knew that. He knew that I knew that. And it didn't matter to him. He believed the story. He honestly believed every word of it.

David Franzoni wrote this well with Gladiator, the gamma rabbit quote above resembles this from Commodus to his father: "You wrote to me once, listing the four chief virtues: Wisdom, justice, fortitude and temperance. As I read the list, I knew I had none of them. But I have other virtues, father. Ambition. That can be a virtue when it drives us to excel. Resourcefulness, courage, perhaps not on the battlefield, but... there are many forms of courage. Devotion, to my family and to you. But none of my virtues were on your list. Even then it was as if you didn't want me for your son."

And then this from Maximus to Commodus: "The time for honoring yourself will soon be at an end."

This is critical knowledge for any Gamma who wishes to improve his lot. I have at last acclimated myself to my station in life. Once you know your place in the hierarchy, you may endeavor to change it, to rise as a man as you gain knowledge, experience and skill. But you have a solid basis for knowing yourself, and that is good.

This has to be true, because reading it made me nauseous.

Strangely enough, even as I wrote that, I felt like a huge weight just got lifted off my shoulders.

I think it's because the realization that I am at the very bottom of the social totem pole means I don't have the expectation, and thus failure of not being at the top of it.

This explains the tendency of Gammas to persistently try to AMOG in the most absurd ways. Someone mentioned the Gamma thinking he is a king, and when I was reading this post Matt King came to mind. After I finally banned him, someone linked to an exchange he participated in on Stingray's blog (https://verusconditio.wordpress.com/2012/09/09/welcome-to-hypergamy/#comment-1159). His delusions of grandeur are something to behold:

I am not Achilles sulking in his tent. I just don’t want to take on a project half-assed. It needs to be full-time and full-speed. I have the resources to play consiglieri to a young leader on the come. Where is he?

This fits perfectly with his hilarious final comment. This was after I explained that it would be unkind of me to continue allowing him to comment under the delusion that he was my superior, and encouraged him to create something of his own:

Ha. You guys are too much.

"Click the link at the bottom of the page and start your own free blog."

Yet another blawg? You’re missing the point. This is not about having some permanent address for regular bloviation (cf. Tomassi). It is about what to do once you have rallied the troops to your banner. It’s time to leverage your hard work here into something useful, rather than preaching to the choir. At least Rollo is publishing a book.

I appreciate the attempt at “tough love,” but I’m a couple steps ahead of you. I do not see a problem and start a blog about it. I work the problem and then consider using a website to report the activity, if that fits in with the mission. (And if I established a website — or already have one — it would be under another identity anyway; my purpose under this guise is simple investigation/reconnaissance.)

Matt is admittedly an extreme case, but sometimes it is easier to identify the pattern in the extreme at first.

This was after I explained that it would be unkind of me to continue allowing him to comment under the delusion that he was my superior, and encouraged him to create something of his own

He tried to pull some of the same crap here as well. If he put half as much effort into just doing his own thing instead of jumping in the backseat and trying to drive, he might have actually gotten somewhere.

I’m a couple steps ahead of you. I do not see a problem and start a blog about it. I work the problem and then consider using a website to report the activity, if that fits in with the mission. (And if I established a website — or already have one — it would be under another identity anyway; my purpose under this guise is simple investigation/reconnaissance.)

Wow, he's, like, James Blog, man. Steps ahead. Couple steps ahead, even. I knew he was a gamma boy, but that's impressively delusional. Apparently the idea of shutting the fuck up and actually doing something that might fail is terrifying to the guy.

While I can understand someone's place based on personality, this is just a odd way to live your life since no one is one thing or the other. Gammas willl, by definition, refuse to accept who they are, but who will try to stop them. Will Alphas step up and stop them? Maybe other gammas that are alpha behaving will stop them. It is the constant testing that will exhaust them as that is not natural for them; however, I always give people the rope to hang themselves.

It does seem like the PUA approach is to train everyone to be alphas so perhaps we need a disclaimer of "the advice does not apply to gammas."

I've often marveled at those who called me self-centered because I was focused on my objectives and my interests to the exclusion of theirs

Tell me about it. My own f*cking family tried to peg this on me starting as a young boy, which in large part led to our lasting estrangement. My reply was always, if you're not going to put me first, then I need to do it. No one else is going to prioritise your life. Put yourself first--and the rest will follow. (And it did!).

And it also explains why some Gamma males have resisted even the most obvious and observable aspects of the hierarchy so bitterly and have literally attempted to redefine Gammatude as winning.

I've seen that one repeatedly. Redefining a loss as a strange, big picture species of win. It's probably the biggest way Gamma Males reinforce their self inflicted illusions.

Show me a man who has never lost and I'll show you a man who has never tested himself.

Winning is great. Their is nothing that feels better than success and achievement.

But nothing on Earth can drive you forward like losing. It's not meant to feel good, its meant to get under your skin like lemon juice in a paper cut. One of the best things that ever happened to me in my life was losing a fight. A quarter of a century later it still burns me when I think of it. And it drove me. That was never going to happen again.

This redefinition of winning, is obviously a way to avoid the pain of losing. But it's also a way to avoid the ambition that comes from a drive to never lose again. After all you don't need to improve yourself if you, 'actually won when you really think about it'. If you are already perfect. You don't need to change anything about yourself.

Gammas reconcile their lack of success with women with a kind of nice-guy martyrdom. For example:

"I am a nice guy, but women only like assholes. Because I am too moral and ethical to ever be an asshole, I will never be successful with women."

The justification becomes that it isn't their fault, it's womens' fault for not liking the "right" type of men. Thus, they wear their lack of attractiveness like a badge of honor rather than shame, validation of the persecution of the nerds.

You also have stuff like, "I like X (movies, comics, videogames, etc) and girls never like X, therefore girls will never like me." Again, the point is to shift the blame to an outside factor out of their control. Anything other than accepting responsibility.

Winning is great. Their is nothing that feels better than success and achievement.

But nothing on Earth can drive you forward like losing. It's not meant to feel good, its meant to get under your skin like lemon juice in a paper cut. One of the best things that ever happened to me in my life was losing a fight. A quarter of a century later it still burns me when I think of it. And it drove me. That was never going to happen again.

This redefinition of winning, is obviously a way to avoid the pain of losing. But it's also a way to avoid the ambition that comes from a drive to never lose again

This is exactly right. Gamma's have no tolerance for this pain, or the ability to adjust and get better. over sensitivity and over stimulation at an early age leave them compromising their integrity for years and just giving up hope. this redefinition of winning is a gamma's pathalogical lack of real confidence. if he had any faith in his abilities he would succeed externally in some way. he doesn't that's why he needs to redefine reality and winning.

All gamma traits start with lying to yourself. that's the root cause. then it just keeps piling up and piling up.

"It's not meant to feel good, its meant to get under your skin like lemon juice in a paper cut."

It feels even worse when, as a recovering Gamma, you look back on all those failures you redefined as "wins" and it hits you all at once. It is roughly analogous to having your ego run over by a truck. A previous post described this as a "nauseous" feeling. Yet it is also immensely freeing. You no longer have to spin lies to yourself to feel better about yourself. The intellectual hoops used to give me real headaches (I wonder if any other Gammas had that happen to them?). When you're at the bottom, there's no where to go but up. You have the chance to really win at something, for a change. To one who has been a perpetual loser, real victory tastes sweeter than anything.

"Strangely enough, even as I wrote that, I felt like a huge weight just got lifted off my shoulders."

That weight was the entire culture pushing against the very idea of legitimate hierarchy. Turns out that a sense for hierarchy, and a comfort level with one's place within it, is essential to healthy masculinity. The end result of scorched-earth anti-authoritarianism is mass effeminacy.

The other thing is the self-esteem movement ended up making every guy (and girl) feel like he/she was the best without doing anything to merit it. That's a heavy weight itself.

"I think it's because the realization that I am at the very bottom of the social totem pole means I don't have the expectation, and thus failure of not being at the top of it."

It's not so much the bottom as a (wide) base. The foundation. The entire structure collapses without a strong support. Your status is much higher than those who undermine the whole thing or have no place at all.

And yet... this man was unemployed and had lived was living with his parents. I had interacted with him almost every day that whole winter. he knew that. He knew that I knew that. And it didn't matter to him. He believed the story. He honestly believed every word of it.

I used to have a friend like this. Always managed to hit his personal bests in lifting when no one else was there to see it. I'm fairly convinced he believed it happened because it wasn't just with that but I couldn't grasp it.

That weight was the entire culture pushing against the very idea of legitimate hierarchy. Turns out that a sense for hierarchy, and a comfort level with one's place within it, is essential to healthy masculinity. The end result of scorched-earth anti-authoritarianism is mass effeminacy.

I think weak fathers do their damage by not developing that sense of hierarchy in their sons; it's not what they do, but what they don't do. I thank God for being the Heavenly Father - it put all things into perspective, and allows me to respect my dad as he is. No more fear in not knowing my place, no more bitterness eating at the soul.

It's true; if you aren't ever knocked down into the ground, you never know what it's like to build yourself up. And it's precisely people who ardently believe they're special and better who often can't handle losing at all.

Incidentally, there have been a few articles in the past year about the epidemic of suicides among Baby Boomers, which is strange since historically suicides were highest among adolescents and the elderly, but quite low among the middle-aged. I wonder how many of these Boomers who offed themselves are Gammas.

Since Gammas are prone to cheating their fellows, it is easy for him to suspect his opponent of the same behavior. Doubtless, thinks the Gamma, the leadership position was earned through subterfuge and oppression since that is how he would obtain it. This is why, even in the midst of intentional debasement, Gammas still possess that self-righteous smugness.

So it would appear that Marxists -- along with most nonwhites for that matter -- are Gammas.

That jibes with my suspicion that male SJWs are mostly Gammas, along with some Lambdas and Omegas, with a few truly evil Alphas funding and leading them.